I spend a lot of time writing and doing research on a laptop every day. I foolishly sold a mid-2009 MBA for a MBP in 2016 and grew to despise the keyboard and dread working on it. I was only too happy to trade in the MPB for a modern MBA (i7, 16 GB memory, 1 TB storage). I haven't noticed any change in performance, and the keyboard is a genuine joy to type on.
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MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews
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Ok, screengrab above showing 4k resolution, 0 frames dropped. I stopped playback after 1min, as I got bored waiting for the 'stuttering dropping frames' and the 'crazy' fans. Maybe I just have the one magic MBA that is able to 'watch a 4k video on youtube' or 'run Chrome without heating up and the fans going crazy'.
Or maybe, you've simply been called out on your earlier exaggerations and don't like it, and your next reply will be another attempt to move the goal posts with some other unsubstantiated and vague claims you glommed off of reddit and YouTube, naturally mixed in with another helping of ad hominem BS in a weak attempt to distract the discussion away from the issue at hand
I am a teacher and I thought I needed the i5 but I think I may return it for the base model i3. I use Chrome a lot for school and google classroom. I just can't get over how hot my lap feels when watching youtube videos. This never happened with my 2019 MBA. I only here the fans when doing a faculty meeting on google meets. i just hope that if I do downgrade to the i3 my lap will be more comfortable.
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Ok, screengrab above showing 4k resolution, 0 frames dropped. I stopped playback after 1min, as I got bored waiting for the 'stuttering dropping frames' and the 'crazy' fans. Maybe I just have the one magic MBA that is able to 'watch a 4k video on youtube' or 'run Chrome without heating up and the fans going crazy'.
Or maybe, you've simply been called out on your earlier exaggerations and don't like it, and your next reply will be another attempt to move the goal posts with some other unsubstantiated and vague claims you glommed off of reddit and YouTube, naturally mixed in with another helping of ad hominem BS in a weak attempt to distract the discussion away from the issue at hand
Anyone else with a Macbook Air want to prove him wrong? I literally sell these things. They cannot play back 4K 60FPS Youtube video. That’s it. End of discussion. You are blind and deaf if you cant hear the helicopter and see the dropped frames every few seconds on that video.
It’s been widely accepted elsewhere on this forum and other forums from owners that these Macbook Airs can’t play this video on youtube.
I’m lucky to live in Australia which is doing pretty well with coronavirus right now and Apple Stores are open. I’m returning our ones right now for the sweet cool Macbook Pro
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So does that 10th gen mbp get uncomfortable on your lap? I can't believe that the air was that much cooler when all the benchmarks I've seen online have highlighted that the air was getting to 100°C while the mbp was usually less than that. Are you saying that the mbp's cpu stays cooler but that the heat from the heatpipes is warming up the laptop's case hotter than the air's?
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I would much rather have the 10th gen mbp but considering my budget, it's way out of my reach. The air would be a good buy but I'd always wish I had the 13 2020 mbp 10th gen
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why are you glad you got the base? You don't want twice as many processing cores and better gpu? I don't understand the reasoning here.
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where did you hear that?
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Here is what happened when I played a 4K video on a 2020 MacBook Air i5/16/512.
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Your results show the temperature hit 100 degrees Celsius. Boiling Point. Playing a 4K YouTube video on the MacBook Air, which by design would have meant the fans would have been going nuts.
Nothing else needs to be said. Thanks for posting that.
The CPUs don't boil at 100C. Luckily, although your MBA appears to be made out of water, mine isn't.
Obviously a reference to boiling point is to drive home how hot 100 degrees celsius is as I understand there are plenty of Americans on here who may not know the metric system.
Thought that would have been obvious. The fact the internals reach the same temperature as what it takes to boil water when watching 4K Youtube Videos as the above poster showed is very concerning.
I would be concerned about long term reliability with those temps so easy to hit. Anyway it’s your choice. I’ve changed to a 2020 2.0GHZ Macbook Pro as I got annoyed I couldn’t even play the Apple Arcade Game Mini Motorways without massive fan noise.
The Macbook Air is a great laptop for ultra light tasks and if you are willing to live in Safari. It is fundamentally flawed for anything approaching work use. I think most people in the know are starting to see the Base Macbook Pro is a better budget laptop than what we all thought the Air was a few weeks ago.
I wish you all good luck.
And there we have it, the inevitable switcheroo dressed up as case proven... 'The MBA isnt able to even play a 4k video' becomes 'The MBA proc gets hot while playing a 4K video'. Like I said at the start, exaggeration, drama and hyperbole.
Now take this guy and multiply him by another 30 or 50 (and notice how many of these posters are all low post count, recent joiners from March / April 2020), and you have what we've been seeing here; from one video (MaxxTech) you suddenly have 50 posters all repeating the same overly dramatic exaggerated half truths. What started as one video just on YouTube becomes an established 'fact' that gets repeated to anyone who asks. Even here on MR where you have enthusiasts with better knowledge and a higher familiarity with the subject matter than in the general populace.
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It’s not a switcheroo at all.
The Macbook Air cannot play 4K 60 FPS Youtube videos without stuttering, the fans flaring up and it flatout choking. It therefore cannot play 4K 60FPS Youtube Videos.
I don’t think it’s fair that other people have to read this back and forth so I’m going to add you to my ignore list now and get on my way. I’ll leave other people who have Macbook Airs to call you out on this, of which I notice plenty of others in this very thread have also acknowledged this issue. It’s wrong to misrepresent this laptop as being able to do something it simply can’t.
For anyone who unfortunately might be swayed by whatever further incorrect information posted, of which I’m sure this user will have another derogatory reply, Please look back throughout this thread and other forums. Aside from this poster and his mates, EVERYONE else is reporting the same behaviour I am which is the stuttering, dropped frames and fans blaring when playing any 4K 60FPS Youtube Videos as the air isn’t powerful enough to handle VP9 4K 60FPS decoding. You can go in store and check this out easily in Chrome/Firefox/Brave yourself. Don’t rely on me, or anyone else for that matter. Test this out yourself and you’ll see it’s the case.
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For the benefit of other users who may believe the incorrect information posted by the other user. Can you please explain to people the stats you posted and what happens when you watch a 4K 60FPS Youtube Video on a Macbook Air in 4K (Like the Costa Rica video). Noting Safari cannot play 4K youtube, so you need to use Chrome/Firefox etc.
It’d be good to just prove the obvious here about the Macbook Air’s poor thermals and the fact it cannot properly play 4K 60FPS Youtube videos.
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As you can see from this video MacBook Pro 2020 with 10th gen Intel CPU also reaches to 100*C "boiling point" very fast and stays there till the end of the test. As for Pro 2020 with 8th gen CPU - average temp was 92-25*C.
So it is normal for 10th gen intel cpu to reach the boiling point and stay there.
In my experience with Air 2020 i5/8/256 when the CPU temperature reaches 100 degrees in sustained load laptop's case stays warm but not hot.
Note that Max Tech himself said the test which made the Macbook Pro reach 100 degrees was designed to stress the mac to it’s limits, meaning it was normal for it to get very hot and in no way represented normal or general use. From 14:30 onwards he makes my entire point in this thread for me and proves mick2 wrong when he compares it with the Macbook Air by stating you can’t compare the results as the Air runs at 100 degrees even when trying to watch 4K 60FPS videos and during other random use.
I suggest everyone watch the whole video. I’ve seen posts in Reddit saying anyone who says they can play 4K 60FPS Youtube Videos on a Macbook Air is a liar. I agree with those people, however once again I’d encourage anyone honest in this thread to try it out for themselves and post here. You don’t need to trust me, just try it yourself. Noting Safari cannot play 4K Youtube Videos and you will need to use Chrome/Firefox/Brave etc.
In short unless you have extremely basic needs, The Macbook Pro Base model is a better buy than the Macbook Air 2020.
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And yet I use it 95% for work use. Mind is blown. I must have one of the only MacBook Airs in existence that allows for work use. I am willing to sell it for $1MM because according to you the rest of the airs aren't for work use and I have the only one that is. You know how rare my machine is?
These facetious replies are exactly why this thread is a joke to literally everyone in the know with these machines and no-one with serious needs should consider them.
I suppose you are going to join your friend and start saying you can play 4K 60FPS Youtube video’s as well, without stuttering which have been proven everywhere not to work properly? Go say it on reddit and see the replies you get outside of the Macbook Air Fanboi bubble.
Stop justifying what will be a crappy purchase for anyone with actual computing needs by leading others down the same path.
What I do know is I can play that video in my browser. Again you with the hyperbole that is can't be used for work and then when someone uses it for exactly what you say it can't be used for is a fanboi.
You know what I do when I watch a video on a 13" screen? The same that 99% of the people do. They click on it and watch it.
No you cannot play that Costa Rica Youtube video in your browser in 4K. I sell these machines, I know what they can and cant do. Note that if you are playing this in Safari then it’s not 4K as Safari doesn’t support it.
I’d like the mods or someone else to test this out and post the results as an editorial and put this BS to bed once and for all which only seems to be some strange belief in this one thread that these Macbook’s don’t have thermal issues.
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Read what is written, not what will send you into a rage.
I can watch the video in my browser.
As I just said:
You know what I do when I watch a video on a 13" screen? The same that 99% of the people do. They click on it and watch it.
You know what I do at work sometimes?
I use excel spreadsheets. What I don't do is create an excel spreadsheet for fun and then give it task after task until it become clunky where the machine can't handle it and then say the machine is broken and I cannot do my work on this fictitional situation.
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Had the Air for a week now- I like the portability of it, how thin & light it is. Its super quick doing general light tasks, however I must say I’ve noticed when pushing it to its limits it has struggled somewhat. I’ve had a fair few instances where high quality YouTube videos playback stops & starts. I also loaded Windows 10 onto it via Boot Camp as I use quite a lot of work software on Windows as it doesn’t work that great on the Mac. I also was using the air to play an old Championship Manager 2001-2002 PC game over on Windows and the fans went into overdrive and got really hot. This is a game from almost 19 years ago- i don’t even think it’s that Graphic powerful but the Air’s cooling system struggled with it- the actual game was snappy but the fans really went into overdrive as they did on other applications I was using over on Windows. Not sure if this is Mac related or whether it’s just the Windows software is crap- I spoke to my brother who uses a Surface Book or Laptop (the one which can be turned into a tablet anyway, I’m not familiar with Microsoft products) and he has been running the same game as I and has no issues with it. So I’m not sure.
Still within my 14 day period and so I’ve packed up the Air to be sent back and have ordered a 13’’ MacBook Pro. In the end I decided I want this computer to last me a good 4-5 years and so for the extra £300 I should future proof myself a bit. It’s a good machine, with some flaws but can see why it is perfect for some people. Shame really, I didn’t want to swap really but feel like the extra power of the Pro will serve me better.
Still within my 14 day period and so I’ve packed up the Air to be sent back and have ordered a 13’’ MacBook Pro. In the end I decided I want this computer to last me a good 4-5 years and so for the extra £300 I should future proof myself a bit. It’s a good machine, with some flaws but can see why it is perfect for some people. Shame really, I didn’t want to swap really but feel like the extra power of the Pro will serve me better.
Again you are part of the minority who is unhappy with this machine. Your hyperbole is also over the top. You said I could not use this for work. You were 100% wrong.
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You're apparently confusing me with someone else and having difficulty with remembering what I've actually written, as you're claiming I've liked posts I haven't liked, and attributing to me of claims I've not made. (AFAIK)
Your arguing and name-calling/insults are not productive discussion. You may disagree with the results someone else has had - nothing wrong with that - state your case and move on.
Good day.
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Judging online, I’d say I’m far from a minority. In fact outside this thread, I’ve never seen any Macbook model have so many people claim to have returned them due to thermal issues.
Point taken about work. If you have very light work uses then obviously in your case it is ok. I myself work with multiple programs at once and conference. My use case has the fans blaring. It’s not what I’d call heavy use either.
For what it’s worth, I returned mine and my wife’s Macbook Airs today and bought a Pro. i have bought my wife a larger hard drive Air (512GB SSD) as I don’t hate the machine. i just don’t like it’s purpose misstated.
LOL. Go to Amazon and Best Buy and look at reviews. Look at reviews in this thread also.
Do you know what minority and majority mean?
I work with multiple programs at work and conference. My fans have been off or inaudible. Care to continue with the hyperbole more?